They're the kind of numbers that make you want to quietly despair, to
give up, to flip the channel and think about something more pleasant.
Melrose Place maybe, or Roseanne. Marr, however, whether from a
sense of conceit, ignorance, or a staggering sense of confidence, saw
nothing impossible in the task of bringing the tiger back from the
brink...

... To highlight the extent of Vancouver's tiger trade, Marr kicked off
a media blitz in January 1996. Local journalists were invited on an
endangered species tour through Chinatown's apothecaries. The tour
began in the low-ceilinged warren that serves as WCWC's headquarters.
Marr upended his leather briefcase, spilling out 15-20 boxes of Chinese
patent medicines: tiger plasters, tiger pills, tiger-based medicaments for
rheumatism, tired blood, soft bones, and sexual impotence, all of them
purchased in shops in Vancouver's Chinatown. Pointing to the
ingredients lists on the diverse packages, Marr picked out the symbols,
words, and phrases that in Latin, English and Chinese spelled out “tiger
bone”.

The next part of the tour was a trip along Pender, Main and Keefer
Streets, with Marr indicating here and there the shops and apothecaries
dealing in tiger medicinals and inviting journalists to go in and check
the shelves for themselves. Six shops out of 10 stocked a variety of
boxes, cartons and bottles labeled with some variation of the word Os
Tigris - tiger bone.

The media loved it. Marr made it on to TV news both locally and
nationally, and stories appeared in city magazines and community papers.
He used his pulpit to heap scorn upon Canadian wildlife regulations.
“Canada's wildlife laws could use an aphrodisiac,' Marr said, “because
right now, they're totally impotent.” He was equally hard-hitting in
his presentations to Chinese community groups and at Eastside Vancouver
high schools. Traditional Chinese medicine's use of parts of animals
like tigers and rhinos, Marr said, and the cutting of many urban trees for
that matter, were based on nothing but pure superstition. That
superstition was destroying a magnificent species. The fact that the
practice was tolerated by the Chinese-Canadian community only blackened
their reputation in mainstream Canadian society.

Environmentalists heaved a sigh of relief. Here was someone
tackling a problem they had long known about but dared not touch.
“It's great that it's a Chinese person doing the work he's doing.” said
Nathalie Chalifour, World Wildlife Fund Canada's tiger expert, “because
when it's a person like me doing it, well, I'm white; I'm more likely to
be accused to being racist, which is really unfortunate, but it does
happen.”

Vancouver's Chinese media were as quick to jump on the story as their
English counterparts. Marr's campaign was covered by both the Ming
Pao and the Sing Tao newspapers, and he appeared on several Chinese
language radio programs. According to Ming Pao columnist and CJVB
radio host Gabriel Yiu, the Chinese community's reaction to Marr's
campaign was mixed. His straight talk on superstition did offend
some, but there was also those who took pride in the fact that a Chinese
Canadian was working on environmental concerns. “For a long period
of time when people are talking about monster homes, tree cutting, killing
wild animals for some of their body parts,” Yiu said, “people do have the
impression that the Chinese community is the cause of that. I think
the work Anthony did set a very good example that we do have people in the
Chinese community who are concerned about these issues.”...

According to Vancouver city councilor Don Lee, Marr's effectiveness was
limited... “I don't know Anthony Marr that well. The Chinese
Community doesn't know him well at all,” Lee said. “We don't know
where he comes from. We don't know why he's doing all this.”
As it turns out, those are two of the most interesting questions that
could be asked about Anthony Marr.

Born in February 1944, in southern China, Anthony Seeu-Sung Marr fled
to Hong Kong along with the rest of his family shortly after the Communist
revolution. Family legend has Marr's father burning the deeds of the
family's extensive land-holdings for a moment's warmth during the first
refugee winter...

(In 1965), Marr came to Canada to study science at the University of
Manitoba... At the same time, his relationship with a Hong Kong girl fell
to bits when she dropped him on orders from her parents. Marr has
never forgiven Chinese culture for the snub. “As a result of that
incident, I have never dated a Chinese girl again,” Marr said. It's
a decision that isolated him somewhat from the Chinese community, but,
according to Marr, it also allowed him to integrate more fully into
Canadian society than other Chinese immigrants of his generation.

In 1966, Marr switched over to the physics department of the University
of British Columbia. His summers he spent in the bush in northern
Manitoba and British Columbia, working as a geologist's assistant.
It was work that can only be idealized by someone who has never done it.
Marr said, “The student is the geologist's personal servant - more like
slave, considering the pay, which was only $280 per month. I made
and carried his lunch, and every few feet, the geologist would pick up a
rock sample about twice the size of my fist and drop it into my knapsack.
I had to carry that ever-heavier thing all day, wading into swamps that
would sometimes come up to my chest or higher. Your shirt would be
black with flies and mosquitoes. There could be a bear behind every
tree. It was brutal, but also absolutely beautiful. And this
was how I bonded with nature.”

After he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1970, Marr took a job as a live-in
house-father for emotionally disturbed kids, then a career in real estate.
He said he had a heavy student loan to pay off. One senses he also
had a need to gain acceptance among the Vancouver business community.
“I made rookie of the year, then Gold Club, Diamond Club, all that,” Marr
said. “I bought a couple of horses - hunters-jumpers - and got
involved with the high social elite you see down in Southlands.”
Snap shots from the time show a short-haired Marr in boots and riding
breeches, sitting atop a bay Thoroughbred gelding.

The real estate phased continued for several years. Marr bought a
small acreage in the suburbs. He dated but never married. “The
work first became routine, then boring, then irksome, then unbearable.
I was still good at it, but the initial challenge was gone,” he said.

About this time, things took a strange turn. Whether from
boredom, a need to be alone, or perhaps simple a desire to see the sights,
he left his job and set off on a solo journey in East Africa, primarily in
the Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge region of
Tanzania. At some point during that three month sojourn, something
happened that changed the whole focus of Marr's life. “If you want
to be dramatic, you could say it came to me all at once in a blinding
flash while I was camping on the savannah, but really, it developed very
gradually.” What Marr was catching sight of was a completely new
philosophical system, one that in Marr's view is comprehensive enough to
explain the organization and development of life, society and the Cosmos
itself.

The full tenet of this system came to him in dribs and drabs over a
period of many months during and after his return. Marr collected
each of these thoughts on a file card - more than 1,000 of them by the end
- and worked at ordering, arranging, and reordering them, trying to
assemble his thoughts into a coherent whole. The process took years.
Marr's live-in girlfriend walked out. “I really shouldn't be living
with someone at that point," Marr said. “I had to have my own room.
I had to have a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign on the door, and if anybody as much
as knocked, my tenuous mental construct would fall down like a house of
cards.” The net result of his shuffling and reshuffling, typing and
retyping, was a manuscript more than 800 pages in length, describing a new and comprehensive
philosophical and
phenomenological system. Marr christened it
OMNI-SCIENCE.... (see www.HOPE-CARE.org,
www.Omni-Science.org)

At first glance, OMNI-SCIENCE bears some resemblance to the ideas of
the Jesuit philosopher-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Both
suggest that the development of humanity must logically proceed in a
converging upward spiral, which Marr calls Integrative Transcendence,
towards ever-superior levels of organization and unity. Marr,
however, is quick to point out how his system differs from those of other
western philosophers. “No philosophical or religious system I’ve
encountered is cosmic enough,” said Marr. “They're too
anthropocentric, too narrowly focused.” Marr's system purportedly
incorporates everything - inorganic and organic - throughout the Universe,
from the Big Bang to whatever end, all participating in the multi-levelled
Integrative Transcendence spiral towards universal life and consciousness.

Hogwash? Possibly. Even Marr himself had doubts (about the
acceptability of his system in the eyes of high academia). In the
late 80s, Marr tossed both manuscript and portable type-writer into his
little green Toyota Celica and set off down the West Coast to test his
system with the best academic minds he could find. One of the stops
was the University of California at Berkeley, and another was Stanford.
“This was when my sales training paid off. When I got to town, the
first thing I'd do was find a course catalog and look up the professors
who were teaching the courses I liked. Back in my hotel room, I'd
crank out a dozen or so letters. ‘Dear Prof. so and so, I have a
matter of philosophical interest that I'd like to discuss with you.
The time required would be about two hours...’ Then I'd go back to
campus and put the letters into the professors’ cubbyholes. The next
day, I'd call and ask for an appointment. We'd talk for two hours,
and at the end, I'd ask for a letter of critique.”

The good professors' reactions to this approach can be discerned from
the letter written by William Kimbel, president of the Institute of Human
Origins at Berkeley: “Owing to the large number of half-baked theories on
cosmology currently in circulation, I admit that I faced the prospect of
my meeting with Mr. Marr with some trepidation. From the outset,
however, it was clear that Mr. Marr is no amateur populariser. On
the contrary, he is a dedicated scholar whose theories, I believe, make a
profound contribution to the fundamental definition of humankind in
relation to the broader universe… implications of great depth and breadth
for the future course of human actions… too important to ignore.”

Marr received similarly effusive letters
from other professors at Berkeley, Stanford, and the Universities of
Oregon, Washington and British Columbia...

Heady stuff. Yet, more than a decade later, the manuscript
remains unpublished. Professor Braxton Alfred of Anthropology, UBC,
said he even offered to help find a publisher, but Marr said his
manuscript was not yet ready for publication. He did leave a copy of
the then manuscript behind after his presentation, but due to professional
pressures, Alfred didn't get around to looking at it until recently.
Reading it now, Alfred said, only increases his respect for Marr. It
also sheds light on what it was that set him on his current crusade.

Published 2003

“The presentation he gave me was hard science, very thoroughly
presented. He was right on the numbers with everything in the
presentation. I presumed likewise in these documents,” Alfred said,
referring to the OMNI-SCIENCE manuscript, “but these are quite a different
thing. That man had a revelation in Africa. There's no other
way to characterize it. It's clear that he was experiencing some
sort of emotional trauma, and something touched him, and what these
documents record are the revealed truth of that contact.”

According to the manuscript, Alfred said, Marr had reached a crisis and
was sitting in the snows of Kilimanjaro, pointing a gun at his head.
Then, as stated in Marr's text: “The sun went down, the moon came up, and
more than my hand had begun trembling. It was then that this
mysterious source of wisdom address me for the first time: ‘I am seeking a
miracle worker, to work a miracle upon this Earth, on my behalf.
Since you seem to have no further use of this body of yours, which seems
to be in prime condition, will you surrender it to me?’”

“That's when the entity, or whatever it is, first made contact with
him,” Alfred said, “but, apparently, the contact continues. It seems
that there is no end to it. I would not be surprised if he has
conversations with this entity still.”

Having read the manuscript, Alfred said he is no longer puzzled by
Marr's decision to turn away from the task of perfecting his book to work
on behalf of endangered species. “It was in Africa that this
naturism force first came to the fore...” The manuscript also gives
some indication of the source of Marr's willingness to take on seemingly
hopeless causes. “He clearly came to a crisis point in his life,”
Alfred said, “and the heavens opened up and truth was revealed, and he's
been going strong eversince.”

Whether his confidence came stems from, when the “‘19th-century
scholar' decided to prove himself as an environmental saviour, he
displayed a thoroughly 19th century sense of ambition..."

… Although some conservationists predict the tiger will be extinct in
five years, Anthony Marr is convinced he can reverse the prophecy…

… China imported the equivalent of 400 grown tigers and exported 27
million tiger derivative products from 1990 to 1993… About 39,000
individual tiger containing products were seized in BC in 1996, including
everything from medicinals to tiger claws…

A Vancouver branch of Asian Conservation Awareness Program is planning
to begin an ad blitz this June, timed to coincide with the dragon-boat
festival. Ironically, Marr will likely not be invited to
participate. According to ACAP's Vancouver organizer Ling Zheng,
Marr's confrontational style doesn't fit in with ACAP's approach, which
hinges on establishing partnerships with the Chinese community groups and
obtaining sponsorship from prominent corporations. “We're trying to
reach out to the Chinese community, so we try not to use his name,” Zheng
said. “If we mention Anthony Marr, I will probably not get any help
from organizations like SUCCESS or the Chinese Cultural Centre. He
can be quite harsh towards certain Chinese people, and I've even heard
that in the Chinese community he's considered like a traitor.”

Whether that’s true or not, Marr has shifted his efforts from reducing
consumption into preserving tiger habitat. With the aid of a $75,000 grant
from the Canadian International Development Agency, Marr has gone to India
to work towards protecting two Indian tiger reserves from encroachment and
poaching by local villagers. The plan is to take a traveling multi-media
show to villages around the tiger reserves and convince the villagers that
the tiger is worth more to them alive than dead.

“Do you think these women enjoy walking five miles every day into the
bush to collect a bunch of twigs and carry it back to the village on top
of their heads? They do it because they have no choice,” Marr said. “If we
give them a choice and say, Look, we’re going to develop ecotourism, we’re
going to organize tourist groups to come to your village, and maybe you
can develop some native products to sell to them… Wouldn’t you rather stay
at home and weave baskets with your kids than walk five miles to haul
water?” Other conservationists from other groups have made these arguments
before, often with little success, but with characteristic confidence,
Marr is convinced he will succeed.

Back in the offices of Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the video
tiger rolls up from the ground and twists back through the gruesome
contortions of death; the dark-haired man lowers a battered rifle and
walks backwards out of the picture, and the orange-and-back form of a
Bengal tiger stands once again beneath the forest canopy, proud, free, and
alive. For a brief while longer.

- Shawn Blore

1995-12-02-6 The Vancouver Sun by
Nicholas Read

[Animal parts for sale,
and it’s legal]

"…‘The Chinese
awareness is really not there," Marr says. "Maybe the only person you saw
in Chinatown today who knows or cares about the plight of the tiger was
me.’…"

1996-01-08-1 Times Colonist, Victoria by
Malcolm Curtis

[Tiger, tiger, put
it right]

"… ‘If major
endangered species of the world – bear, elephant, tiger, rhino – become
extinct as a result of Chinese demand for their body parts, I would
consider that a very serious crime against nature," Marr said in an
interview…"

1997-02-13-4 The Vancouver Sun by Anthony
Marr

[Tiger, tiger,
burning…out?]

"… If we commit to
Gaia our heart and soul, our children may just see a new world emerge, one
more compassionate than ever before, perhaps one destined for the stars."

1997-03-19 The Hindu, Delhi, India

[In aid of the
vanishing Bengal Tiger]

"Finally, the BET’R
Campaign to save bears, elephants, tigers and rhinos has entered India as
well…"

1997-05-08 The Georgia Straight, Vancouver by Roland Goetz

[Save tigers rather
than saving feelings]

"… According to the
article ([Bloody Superstition] - April 14), Garry Grigg of the Canadian
Wildlife Service says, ‘We don’t want to be too heavy. We have got too
many new Canadians here, and it takes a while to assimilate. We’re dealing
with something that is thousands of years old.’

"My question is, would
we allow other cultural practices, such as incest, clitoral mutilation,
bestiality, or polygamy, to be imported into Canada?…

"… to save some
feelings, we (may be allowing) a magnificent species to be destroyed."

1997-05-15

Korea Leads Illegal Trade in
Bear Parts

LONDON --
(ENS) -

In a
report released this week, an international coalition of wildlife
organisations, including the London-based World Society for the Protection
of Animals (WSPA), expose South Korea92s leading role in the illegal trade
in bear parts. The report , "Killed for Korea" concludes that "South Korea
and Korean people abroad represent the bear92s worst enemy after habitat
loss."

Undercover film recently taken by animal campaigners shows
Korean-sponsored bear poaching and gallbladder smuggling on an
international scale as well as the killing of endangered bears for South
Korean restaurant-goers.

The bears are desired for bear paw soup, a highly prized delicacy in South
Korea. Diners will pay in excess of US$1,000 for a bowl of bear paw soup.

WSPA, together with the Korean Federation for the Environment Movement (KFEM),
Humane Society of the US/Humane Society International (HSUS/HSI) and the
Global Survival Network (GSN), is lobbying the US government to sanction
South Korea over the illegal trade in bear parts. The organisations, with
a total membership of over four million people worldwide, are considering
an international boycott campaign of Korean goods, if their current
approaches to Korean authorities are unsuccessful.

Andrew Dickson, WSPA chief executive, said, "Consumption of bear parts is
a national disgrace for South Korea. We are trying to persuade the Korean
authorities to stop this illegal trade which is pushing Asian bears
towards extinction."

WSPA92s campaign is being backed by the Korean Federation for the
Environment Movement (KFEM). Kwon Heanyol, spokesperson for KFEM said,
"This outdated practice is a slur on our national reputation. It makes us
look cruel and barbaric. Herbal, synthetic and Western alternatives exist
for bear gallbladder. Why can92t all Koreans use these instead of
continuing to torture and slaughter bears?"

Anthony Marr, organizer of Bears, Elephants, Tigers, Rhinos (BETR), a
conservation group based in Vancouver, British Columbia confirms that
South Korea is the world's leading consumer of bear parts.

Marr says, "South Koreans sometimes import black bears on the pretext of
using them for zoo exhibits, then they have them killed in front of
restaurant customers to prove authenticity and freshness."

Marr says he has read reports of caged bears lowered live onto hot coals
to have their paws cooked. This procedure is supposed to guarantee
freshness, authenticity and entertainment for the customer.

Bear paws
are considered a delicacy, not a medicinal, but bear gall bladders are
prized for their medicinal effect.

The powdered bile taken from the bear galls has a whole range of uses,
primarily for digestive healing and intestinal illnesses including
parasites and bacterial infections. The powdered bile is used as an
anti-spasmodic, a pain-killer, tranquillizer, an anti-allergenic, and a
cough remedy. It is also considered to be a general purpose body tuning
tonic. Bear bile is even said to restore a liver damaged by overdrinking.

Unlike tiger bones and rhino horns which have no real medicinal value,
bear galls do contain ursodeoxycolic acid which does have a medicinal
effect. This acid was patented as a synthetic in Japan in the 1930s.
Today, 150 tons are used annually worldwide.

There are seven species of bears in the world, excluding the panda and
koala, which are not considered to be true bears. Three bear species are
endangered, particularly the Asiatic black bear, which used to be the main
source of galls. The Asiatic black bear is now almost completely wiped out
in China and Korea.

To meet the demand from Korea and other Asian countries, poachers have
been taking bears from Russia and North America. Marr says poaching is
"huge" in North America. Poachers have been caught in British Columbia
recently, but provincial laws have no teeth, as the indigenous bears are
not yet listed as endangered.

The penalty is very light when poachers are caught in B.C. Marr says,
"Someone recently caught with 90 galls, which would easily sell for
US$250,000 thousand in Korea, was fined $3,500 bucks, not even the price
of one gall in Korea. For every batch of poached bear parts discovered by
law enforcement officers, 49 get away. Customs officials estimate they can
check only 2-3% of what goes out of Canada."

In London, the WSPA is offering broadcast quality undercover footage
showing the killing of endangered bears for South Korean diners and the
farming of bears in China, some of which are destined for the Korean
market

"… One Ottawa
professor of traditional Chinese medicine, who asked not to be identified,
said she abides by Canada’s laws banning the sale of tiger and bear parts,
but that doesn’t mean she agrees with them.

"‘How come you have to
protect the tiger, but not the cow?’ she asked. ‘I am a doctor. I want to
treat people. If you care more about human than animal (sic), then why not
use animal parts for safety?’…

"Mr. Marr, who plans a
visit to the Chinatowns of both Toronto and Ottawa (to demonstrate that
the new law) is not being properly enforced…"

1997-07-11 The Toronto Sun by Tom
Godfrey

[Tiger goods on
shelf]

"… Toronto has become
a hotbed for the sale of animal parts, including penises… said Anthony
Marr…

"Marr said within an
hour he was able to buy processed medicines containing or claiming to
contain tiger bone, seal penis, deer penis…"

1997-07-15 The Globe and Mail, national by
Michael Valpy

[The trade in seal
and tiger parts]

"This is a Canadian
story. Anthony Marr, a Chinese Canadian who lives in Vancouver, is sitting
in a Toronto hotel restaurant waiting for a television crew.

"When the crew
arrives, he will take its members to Toronto's Chinese community’s
downtown commercial district on Spadina Avenue. Here they will wire him
with a microphone and film him buying illegal tiger bone pills and legal,
regrettably, seal penis pills…

"Mr. Marr, an intense
man, says he has been embarrassed by all these practices…"

1997-10-01-3 News Leader, Burnaby, BC

[Gilmore students
join efforts to "Save-the-Tiger"]

"… ‘Unless a huge
conservation effort ignites now, the tiger will be extinct in the wild by
the year 2004…’ said Anthony Marr… who gives the slideshows to the
schools. ‘Some adults say, "How many tiger are there in Canada? Why should
we be bothered? Go ask the kids.’…"

1997-10-04-6 The Peace Arch News, Surrey, BC by Tracy
Holmes

[Care for the cats]

"Save the tiger.

"That was the message
students of Peace Arch Elementary received at a presentation by… Anthony
Marr…

"Under the watchful
eyes of a 50-foot inflatable tiger, the kids learned the only 4,000 tigers
remain in the wild, and that some subspecies totaled less than the number
of students in the gym.

"But, ‘I do not
believe the tiger is doomed,’ Anthony Marr told the kids. ‘The reason I
believe this is because nobody has ever asked kids like you to help out.
If we can get kids around the world to say, ‘I want to save the tiger’, I
believe the tiger will be saved.’…

"He also asked them to
come to the Save-the-Tiger Walk at Stanley Park Oct. 18."

1997-10-08-3 The Vancouver Courier by Gudrun Will

[Students take
tiger by the tail]

"High school
environmental club rallies behind animal activist.

"An auditorium full of
Kitsilano high school students roared in appreciation…

"Inspiring youth, Marr
believes, is the only hope to save the rapidly diminished species…"

1997-10-16 The Westender, Vancouver

[Halloween fun,
Tiger Walk set]

"… The WCWC has
organized Save-the-Tiger Walk ’97…"

1997-10-19-7 The Province, Vancouver

[Walking for
wildlife]

"Hundreds of concerned
people took part in the ‘Save-the-Tiger Walk’ in Vancouver’s Stanley Park
yesterday. They were walking to raise money to protect the dwindling
number of tigers left in the wild."

1997-10-19-7 Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global

[1,000 people walk
to save 4,000 tigers]

"WCWC’s Save-the-Tiger
Walk attracted over 1,000 children and their teachers and parents, and
raised $20,000…"

1997-10-29-3 The Comox Valley Echo by Diane Radmore

[Service to
remember animals]

"Animal lovers of all
kinds are invited to come hear guest speakers and attend an outdoor
gathering called In Remembrance of the Animals at noon Saturday, November
1, at the Sid Williams Foundation in downtown Courtenay…

"… Anthony Marr,
initiator of the worldwide BET’R Campaign… will also be in attendance…"

1997-10-31-5 The Comox Valley Record
by Diane Radmore

[Vigil for lost
wildlife]

"Local activists to
speak at downtown rally tomorrow…

"… Since last year’s
referendum on bear hunting in BC campaign, Marr has been to India on
behalf of the dwindling tiger population and was a guest speaker at last
week’s International Fund for Animal Welfare Conference concerning the
East Coast seal hunt…"

1997

New Internationalist magazine

Biodiversity Threat:
The traffic in endangered species for their skins,
organs, horns or as exotic pets is putting some of the
world's most vulnerable wildlife in dire peril.

photo by BJORN ULFSSON

Bad medicine

Ross Crockford

tells the story of a man who has
stepped on toes
from Campbell River to Hong Kong to stop a pernicious trade

.

Anthony Marr knows what it feels like to be
endangered. Last summer the Vancouver environmentalist was touring small
towns in British Columbia, gathering signatures to force a referendum
outlawing the hunting of bears in this Canadian province. Often the
reception he got was downright hostile. Many people in the countryside
claimed he was trying to destroy their livelihood and their heritage.
‘In Campbell River,’ recalls Marr, ‘a hunter pointed at me and said: “I
saw you on TV this morning. The price on your head just went up
$10,000.”’

Pretty frightening, but
Marr has heard similar threats before, and often made in defence of a
culture that is much, much older. Marr’s referendum drive was part of a
larger, ongoing campaign (acronymed as BET’R) he has been running since
November 1995 to stop the worldwide slaughter of bears, elephants,
tigers and rhinos – big-game animals whose body parts are frequently
used in traditional Chinese medicine. Marr is convinced that as Asia
prospers and trade becomes further deregulated the demand for these
animal parts will skyrocket.

Fortunately he’s in a
position to do something about it. Since he was born in China and raised
in Hong Kong, Marr figures he’s entitled to criticize things he grew up
with that strike him as mere superstition. One is the belief that
consuming part of a powerful animal gives strength to a corresponding
part of your body. ‘When I was a kid my parents would give me things
like bear gall and tiger bone as if it was aspirin,’ says Marr, who’s
now 52. ‘Endangered species wasn’t part of my vocabulary at all.’

Consequently Marr spends
much of his time speaking at Vancouver schools with large numbers of
Chinese students, many of whom are hearing about the problem for the
first time. He also speaks on Chinese-language radio talk shows.
Sometimes listeners accuse him of defaming the Chinese reputation. Marr
replies that, on the contrary, he is trying to save it: if we drive a
species to extinction, he says, we can never regain respect in the eyes
of the world.

‘A white person saying
these kinds of things might be called a racist,’ says Marr. ‘But when a
Chinese person is pointing the finger at Chinese culture, it’s more like
self-examination.’

If public education is
the long-term ‘yin’ of the BET’R campaign, the aggressive ‘yang’ is law
enforcement. Until recently it was common to find rhino-hide and
tiger-bone pills on the shelves of apothecaries in Vancouver’s
Chinatown, and many did a brisk trade in gall bladders taken from bears
poached in British Columbia and smuggled by individuals to Asia to sell
for as much as $18,000 apiece. After a report by the Washington DC-based
Investigative Network revealed the extent of the problem (one dealer
offered a discount for 50 galls or more), law officers raided six
businesses and seized 191 bear galls. Citing cases like this, Marr
persuaded the Canadian Government to proclaim a Wildlife Trade Act, with
penalties for traffickers of up to $150,000 in fines and five years in
prison.

‘Chinese people are very
pragmatic,’ says Marr. ‘They do things to produce results. They will
abide by the law if the law comes down on them. Besides, if I work on
the law I can affect all of the stores instead of just one of them.’

Not content to stop
there, Marr then began the drive for a referendum to outlaw all bear
hunting in British Columbia. Though the North American black-bear
population is considered ‘healthy’ and the grizzly is classified as
‘threatened’, Marr argues that instituting such a ban when both species
are endangered will be too late.

Hunters replied with
death threats and racial insults, and obstructed and photographed people
who wanted to sign Marr’s petition. In the end his volunteers managed to
collect over 90,000 signatures – half of what was needed to force a
referendum, but enough to argue convincingly that many wanted bear
hunting stopped. Marr called on the provincial government to set aside
more wildlife reserves, increase the penalties for poaching and ban the
spring hunt, when most poaching occurs.

Now Marr is taking his
BET’R campaign around the world. He plans to speak in several North
American cities with large Chinese communities and after that in several
Chinese-speaking capitals of the Pacific Rim. ‘There have been many
articles crying for help, saying that what is needed is a person of
Chinese extraction to tackle this problem,’ he says. ‘So here I am.’

Marr knows there will be
some risk; organized crime is directly involved in the
six-billion-dollar annual trade in endangered species, and it’s certain
those involved will threaten him if they they think he’s jeopardizing
their business. But after tangling with British Columbia’s hunters, he
should be ready.

"… Anthony Marr calls
upon all Chinese, Japanese and Korean people around the world to stop
using tiger bone, bear gall and rhino horn medicines…"

1998-01-31 Ming Pao Daily (Chinese), global

[Tigers may be
extinct within one decade]

"… Anthony Marr speaks
out from the Year of the Tiger booth at Aberdeen Centre…"

1998-02-24-2 The News, Parksville - Qualicum Beach, BC

[WCWC’s Bear Man
returns to QB]

"Anthony Marr will be
in Qualicum Beach next Tuesday, presenting slides of his two recent trips
to India…

"Marr has stirred up a
media storm…

"Marr will be
‘Champions of the Tiger’ in Omni-Film’s Champions of the Wild series on
Discovery Channel this fall…"

1998-02-24-2 Comox Valley Echo

[Saving the Tiger
theme for slideshow]

"… Please come out to
witness the beauty of these magnificent animals and celebrate the ray of
hope that Anthony brings us."

1998-02- The Free Press, Nanaimo, BC

["Champion of the
Tiger" visits]

"The ‘Champion of the
Tiger’ will share his story with Nanaimo…

"The slideshow starts
at 7:30 p.m. at the Maffeo-Sutton auditorium… on March 5…"

1998-02-27-5 The Comox Valley Record

[Tigers in danger]

"WCWC hopes all to
celebrate the Chinese Year of the Tiger with Anthony Marr…"

1998-03 Technocracy Digest by
Bette Hiebert

[The Year of the
Tiger - so, why are they killing them?]

"For money, of course…

"Anthony Marr… is on
his way to challenge the East Asian destroyers in their lairs, to confront
these people who are making millions killing these beautiful cats…

"Mr. Marr believes
that if we commit to the Earth our heart and soul, our children may see a
new world more compassionate than ever before. We hope he is right, but as
long as there is the almighty dollar, there will be no compassion, and our
children will see nothing but barren earth…"

1998-04-29 Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, ON by Michael Den Tandt

[RCMP cracks down
on trade in endangered animal parts]

"Toronto - The RCMP
and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources have taken a bite out of
this city’s lucrative trade in endangered animal parts, a move
conservationists say is long overdue…

"Asked whether
(Viagra) may take some pressure off endangered species, Mr. Marr said… ‘If
it doesn’t harm the environment, or any species, and it helps someone’s
quality of life, then it’s a private manner.’

"He added, ‘I’ve seen
one or two people on TV - and they really vouch for it. Including their
wives."

1998-06-07-7 The Vancouver Courier by Gudrun Will

[Tiger volunteers
paint mural to save species]

"On a scalding
Wednesday afternoon, underwear clad painters dab tropical sunset colours
on the front wall of downtown Davie Street hangout DV8. The artists are
creating a tiger mural in preparation for a silent art auction to help
save the species.

"... Organizer Tracy
Zuber, a tiny 29-year-old in black sports bra and plaid shorts, is a
self-professed tiger fanatic. Images of the wild animal cover her
apartment walls. 'They're the personification of beauty, power and grace.
They're a figurehead of primal life power,' said Zuber.

"Her preferred
felines, however, are also a rapidly dwindling species; little more than
4,000 are left in the wild, and two are killed per day. Zuber was inspired
to raise funds to slow down the tiger's beeline to extinction while
participating in the Save-the-Tiger Walk last fall with her daughter Fija.
The Year of the Tiger seemed an appropriate time to make an effort, she
says......

"… conservationist
Anthony Marr will present a slideshow that night…"

1998-09 The Vancouver Sun

[Champions return
to Discovery]

"‘It took the tiger 10
million years to evolve to its present state of magnificence,’ says
Anthony Marr, ‘but less than one century to fall to the brink of
extinction. This, sadly, is the way of humans.’

"The Chinese-born
Canadian is featured in the Bengal Tiger of India episode of the
award-winning TV documentary series Champions of the Wild, now in its
second season on Discovery Channel…

"Each episode
highlights the efforts of a particular conservationist, from Clark
Lungren’s work in the Nazinga Game Reserve, airing October 5, to Marr’s
multi-faceted campaign to protect the tiger on October 12…

"Champions of the Wild
was produced by Omni Film Productions, in association with the National
Film Board, BC Film, and the Discovery Channel, with the participation of
Telefilm and the Cable Production Fund."

1998-10-11-7
The Province, Vancouver by Jonathan McDonald

[Species run for
their lives]

"Premier - Champions
of the Wild - Mondays at 6 and 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel.

"… this 13-part series
is only partly about the animals who are running for their lives. It’s
mainly about the people - Canadians by and large - who are doing whatever
they can to reverse increasingly hopeless situations.

"‘It’s vital,’ says
Anthony Marr, a Vancouverite who heads the Tigers Forever campaign and is
the subject of ‘Bengal Tigers of India’, which premiers Monday night on
Discovery Channel. ‘The tiger is an icon of wildlife conservation. It is
one of the world’s most admired and also most endangered animals. If it
falls extinct, the whole global conservation effort will lose steam, and
the world will lose an immeasurable amount of beauty.’

"Marr is not kidding.
Seeing the Bengal tiger sleep, prowl and hunt is wondrous. Seeing the work
of poachers - tiger skins and medicines - is no less than horrifying and
offensive. And seeing Marr sit down in an Indian village to tell the
children about the beauty of the tiger - an animal, he urges, that
deserves to be on Earth - is the perfect reflection of Canadians’ work
around the globe.

"‘They’re extremely
dedicated,’ says Chris Bruyere, Champion’s producer… ‘Often, these are
people who don’t believe there’s such a thing as fighting a losing
battle.’…

1998-10-11-7 Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global

[Chinese campaigner
saving 4,000 remaining wild tigers]

"The WCWC set up booth
at the Vancouver Public Library Saturday to publicize tiger conservation,
and will lead the Save-the-Tiger Walk at Stanley Park next Saturday…

"Anthony Marr says
that of the original 8 subspecies of tigers, only 5 remain, totaling no
more than 4 or 5 thousand, of which two die daily to poaching and other
causes. At this rate, there will be no tigers left to celebrate the next
Year of the Tiger…"

1998-10-18-7 Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global

[100 walk to save
4,000 tigers]

"… Last year’s
Save-the-Tiger Walk brought out 2,000 people and raised almost $20,000 for
tiger conservation. Unfortunately, this year’s Walk picked the worse
possible time weatherwise. Only 100 people showed up to brave the heavy
rain and high winds…"

1998-11-07 Toronto Sun by
Michael Clement

[Animal Parts
illegally sold here: activist]

"A west-coast wildlife
activist alleges he purchased three bottles containing parts of endangered
species, being sold illegally in a store in Toronto’s Chinatown yesterday…

"Marr asked reporters
to accompany him to the Po Chi Tong Chinese pharmacy on Dundas St. W.
yesterday where he purchased the three bottles. The bottles of pills
purportedly contained bear gall bladder secretion, possibly from the
endangered Asiatic Black bear, secretions from the musk gland of the
endangered Musk Deer, and tiger bone, possibly from the endangered Bengal
or Siberian Tiger, Marr said.

"‘Internationally,
endangered species are totally forbidden to be traded, alive or dead, in
whole or part,’ he said, adding that in June 1996 Ottawa enacted laws
‘forbidding the sale of anything containing endangered species parts.’

"‘The point of this
exercise is to prove that the law is not being effectively enforced.’…"

1998-11-26-4 Nelson Daily News by Bob Hall

[Kids in the
tiger’s grasp]

"Anthony Marr… is
touring area schools this week promoting the Save-the-Tiger campaign. With
the help of the Nelson Youth Environmental group who put on a play of Dr.
Seuss’s The Lorax followed by Marr’s slideshow… Wednesday morning, Marr
talked to Hume Elementary School students in front of a 12 foot high, 50
feet long inflatable tiger prop. To bring further attention to the issue
there will be a Save-the-Tiger Walk-a-thon this Saturday at Lakeside Park
starting at 11 a.m. For more information contact the Nelson Eco-Centre."

1998-12-02-3 Trail Daily News by Lana Rodlie

[WCWC shares
extinction fears with area students]

"… Bring the message
about diminishing tigers to area schools, Anthony Marr is hoping to save
the tiger, one child at a time…

"Pointing out how
every living thing affect the life of something else, he asked the
children, ‘How many cows do you think live in India?’

"Would you believe 350
million?

"Cows eat grass. Deer
eat grass. Tigers eat deer. If the cows eat up all the grass, what do you
think will happen to the deer, and the tiger?…

"‘Still, if you go
into an Indian national park, you’re not allowed to touch anything, take
anything, not even pick a blade of grass. But would you believe in a BC
park, you are allowed to kill grizzly bears?’"

1999-02 Travel Talk magazine, India TT Bureau

[Save the Tiger
campaign]

"… ‘A conscious effort
has to be made to make the villagers aware of the hazards of
deforestation, overgrazing and poaching, and their consequences on the
whole ecological balance,’ said Marr.

"His Save-the-Tiger
campaign has introduced new eco-friendly techniques for resource
conservation, like solar cooking devices and biogas to wean the villagers
from their dependence on wood-fuel…

"Marr also feels that
the entry fee to the Indian wildlife sanctuaries should be raised manifold
to benefit the locals of the area and also to maintain the reserves…"

1999-02-12-5 The Hindu, national, India

[Need to protect
tigers stressed]

"… Mr. Marr, who is of
Chinese extraction, is apologetic about the role of his country of origin
in making the tiger a haunted animal… The Chinese make medicines out of
tiger parts and, in the process, import as many as 300 dead tigers from
India and Russia a year…

"Owning up to his
birth country is the penitent Mr. Marr when he says that he is paying the
penalty for his countrymen by campaigning (against the Chinese tradition)…

"… In the Pink City (Jaipur),
Mr. Marr lectured to 2500 school children in three schools. In Delhi, he
had a captive audience of children in 10 schools. He is convinced that
children are India’s hope for its national animals the tiger…"

1999-02-14-7 The Asian Age, India

[Tiger walk today
to save wild cats]

"… According to
official estimates… tiger numbers have dwindled from 3,750 in 1993 to
3,000 in 1997. After the initial success of Project Tiger, the 90s have
seen a drastic fall in tiger numbers. The tiger population in reserves
around the country stands at 1,333 in 1995…"

1999-02-15-1 The Statesman, India

[A valentine for
the big cat]

"An unusual ‘Valentine
Day’ message was displayed by tiger enthusiasts in the Capital who went on
a brisk march from Delhi Zoo to the head quarters of Project Tiger at
Bikaner House, to spread the message of conservation.

"Children and adults
held up banners for the ‘Love Tiger Walk’… (Organizers) pointed out that
the largest cat n the world today has a mortality rate of two per day in
the world and one per day in India alone.

"‘Especially as a
tigress does not have another litter till her young can support
themselves, ‘it is so much necessary to support the ones which are alive,
as they do not breed rapidly like other species,’ said a child who
participated in the march.

"A video show, an
inflatable tiger blimp and presentations by eminent conservationists were
some of the features of the march, which was supported (in part) by the
WCWC."

1999-02-15-1 The Indian Express, India

[Tiger, tiger
burning bright]

"A tiger balloon at
the Love the Tiger Walk at the Delhi Zoo on Sunday…"

1999-02-15-1 The Hindu, national, India

[Valentines tiger
lovers]

"… A team comprising
Mr. Anthony Marr, campaign director of WCWC… has been making slide
presentations, holding video shows and having interactions inside a
50-feet inflatable tiger balloon…

"They have been
received with great enthusiasm by more than 5,000 students of various age
groups. Painting competitions and slogan contests have also been organized
as part of the campaign…"

1999-02-15-1 The Pioneer, national, India

[‘Save Tiger’ walk]

"Wildlife lovers
walked through the busy streets of the national Capital on Valentine’s Day
on Sunday to show their love for the tiger, which faces the threat of
extinction…"

1999-02-15-1 The Hindustan Times, national, India

[Save the tiger]

"A 50-foor balloon
tiger at the National Zoological Park to generate awareness among the
masses for the conservation of the tiger…"

1999-02-16-2
Delhi Times, The Times of India, national

[He is no ordinary
tiger]

"They sit inside it
and discuss its decimation from the face of the planet. It’s 50-foot long
and 12-foot high and is made of parachute material that can inflate.
Striped bright yellow and black, this tiger was (brought to India) by WCWC
for a Save-the-Tiger campaign to generate awareness on tiger conservation
amongst school children…"

1999-03-18-4
The Hitavada ("The oldest and largest circulated English daily in Central
India")

[Save tigers from
extinction: Marr - Great mission: Anthony Marr educating children about
protecting the majestic and beautiful tiger]

"… Mr. Marr who is
tirelessly working in India… said that the tiger is the greatest national
treasure of India, but even more so, it is a global treasure that is
revered the world over. ‘Though it belongs to no individual, its loss
would impoverish us all.’…

"… Mr. Marr said that
the Royal Bengal tiger might look the most secure of all remain
subspecies, but in truth, it is no more secure that the last carriage of a
crashing train…

"Currently, Mr. Marr,
along with (Canadian volunteer Anne Wittman) and… (Indian conservationist)
Faiyaz Khudsar are battling to educate the people living around the Kanha
(Tiger Reserve)…"

1999-05-10-1 The Vancouver Sun by
Alex Strachan

[Rupert’s Land,
Discovery shows win early Leos]

"… In television
awards, Andrew Gardner won best writing in an informational series for a
segment of Champions of the Wild featuring conservationist Anthony Marr
and his efforts to draw attention to the plight of India’s Bengal tiger.
Champion’s cinematographer Rudolf Kovanic was also cited for a segment
about elephants…"

"… Anthony Marr… warns tigers are disappearing at al alarming rate. He is
in Nanaimo this week to ask area school children to save the tiger from
extinction.

"‘Your voice is important and you must speak out,’ Marr told students of
Uplands Park Elementary Tuesday. ‘You are very powerful if you want to
make some changes in the world.’

"Marr has been back in BC
for about a month, after a 10 week working stint at tiger reserves in
India. He brought home with him a breath-taking slideshow of the country’s
landscape, tree and plant life, birds and animal life, and of course,
photographs of the tiger he viewed at India’s Kanha, Bandhavgarh and
Ranthambhore tiger reserves.

"‘A question I am asked often by adults is there are no tigers in Canada,
so why should we be bothered.,’ Marr told student.

"‘Very simply. The tiger is one of most beautiful animals in the world. If
it becomes extinct, our world would be much less beautiful place. We all
lose.’.."

1999-06-07-1 Nanaimo
News Bulletin by Erin Fletcher

[A tale of 4,000 tigers]

"Children hold the key to the survival of the endangered tiger, says tiger
conservationist Anthony Marr…

"To spread the word about the plight of tigers, Marr was visiting Nanaimo
schools last week with a slideshow presentation, video, and a discussion
in the hopes to stimulate an interest in tiger preservation among local
youth.

"Marr has been involved with tiger conservation since 1994. His passion
takes him into the depths of India where he works to educate and promote
the preservation of tigers…"

1999-06-10-4 Nanaimo
News Bulletin by John Kimatas

[Chamber picks city’s top
citizens]

"… Having won a scholarship this year, (Madeline) Hargrave says she’ll
probably study at Malaspina University-College for a year. But after
hearing Anthony Marr speak at a Global Watch function about the plight of
tigers in India, she’s considering traveling to India to help him save the
tiger.

"Otherwise, she is unencumbered by limitations. ‘I want to do everything,’
she says."

1999-08-02-1 Associated Press, New York City by Katherine
Roth

[Despite tougher laws,
tiger bone still widely available in Chinatown]

"… As of Monday, the products were still prominently displayed on the
shelves of some pharmacies and grocery stores (in New York City's
Chinatown)…

"‘It’s very popular and is good for people with bad backs,’ a smiling
clerk at Kam Man Food Products on Canal Street told shoppers on Monday. ‘I
don’t take it, because I don’t have a bad back, but a lot of people do,’
said the man, who declined to give his name or comment further…

"Anthony Marr… said that of the 37 traditional Chinese pharmacies visited
in Chinatown recently, nine were openly selling products listing tiger
bone as an ingredient. He is calling for stiffer penalties for sellers and
importers who break the law…

"But the US Fish and Wildlife Service… says it doesn’t have enough
resources to stop the brisk trade…

"‘We have 93 inspectors and 230 special agents for the entire country.
They’re stretched pretty thin,’ said Patricia Fischer, a spokeswoman for
the agency. ‘The sheer volume of wildlife products coming into this
country present a monumental task…’

More than 50,000 over-the-counter tradition Chinese medicines containing,
or purporting to contain, tiger bone and parts from other critically
endangered species are sold in the United States each year to people of
all ages and ethnic groups…"

"Anthony Marr, the Chinese-Canadian tiger campaign director of WCWC in
Vancouver, said the purchase proved a grim fact that he had traveled to
New York to demonstrate:

"The law against selling medicine made from the bones of tigers, an
endangered species, is not being enforced.

"‘I’m here in New York to
persuade the government to enforce the law,’ said Marr. ‘Tigers will be
extinct within 10 years unless things change.’

"A spokeswoman for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, which is
responsible for monitoring the sale of tiger bone medicine, conceded the
agency could do a better job. ‘But we don’t have the staff,’ Patricia
Fisher said. ‘We only have 230 special agents for the entire country.’

"She said the agency has tried to control the sale of tiger bone by
teaching Asian communities about endangered species, rather than by
enforcing the law without explaining it. ‘This is a tradition in Oriental
medicine that goes back centuries,’ Fisher said…"

1999-08-03-2 World
Journal (Chinese), global

[The ‘Long March’ of a
Chinese-Canadian conservationist]

"… Marr arrived in New York City last Friday. On Saturday, he conducted a
reconnaissance of Manhattan’s Chinatown district with some local help. In
one sizzling afternoon he investigated 37 medicinal stores, and found at
least nine that still openly displayed tiger bone medicines for sale…

"Yesterday, after a brief media conference in which Marr gave a slideshow
on tiger conservation, he led the media present to three of the nine
stores to perform demonstration live-purchases…’

"Shop keepers interviewed seemed aware of the illicit nature of the
product, but said since most tigers in China have been killed off, the
tiger bone medicines they sell probably contain no real tiger ingredient…

"The new Rhino and Tiger Product Labeling Act of 1998, however, ban any
product claiming to contain tiger or rhino parts, whether or not they
actually do…"

1998-08-12-4 Reuters
News Agency by Manuela Badawy

[Import of tiger bones a
problem in U.S.]

"…’At today’s rate of poaching tigers will be extinct in a decade. Tigers
don’t have the time to wait for the Chinese community to change its
habit,’ said Marr, who is of Chinese descent and has taken heat from other
Asian for his campaign.

"On a recent day, he led journalists to New York’s Chinatown, which has
one of the largest concentrations of people with Chinese background in the
United State, to buy supposedly banned tiger elixirs.

"At the Golden Spring pharmacy on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan, Marr
walked right in and bought a vial of Tiem Ma tiger bone pills for $3.95.
Tiem Ma pills, made by Guiyang Chinese medicine factory in China, listed
6.8 percent ground tiger bone as one of its ingredients and claimed to
treat rheumatic neuralgia, lassitude of tendon and back pain.

"When journalists and photographers went into the store after Marr
purchased the pills, clerks became visibly anxious, removing the pills
from the counter and shoved them into a box. They refused to answer
journalists’ questions…"

1999-08-21-6 The
Toronto Star by Manuela Badawy, Reuters

[A helluva town for
tigers]

"… Under the 1998 Rhino and Tiger Products Labeling Act …people caught
with these products face a fine of $5,000. Business owners pay $10,000
and/or get six months in jail.

"In comparison, fines for seal penises are $100,000 for individuals and
$200,000 and/or one year in jail for business owners.

"Marr says the fines for tiger violations should at least equal that for
seal violations, if only because the tiger is critically endangered…"

* *
*

2001

BITTER HARVEST

Alternatives exist, but the milking of bears for their bile is hard to
eradicate

By Helen Connealy Hong Kong

DANNY THE ASIATIC BLACK
bear has spent years rammed into a cage slightly larger than his lumbering
frame. A rusting metal catheter surgically implanted in his gall bladder
dangles from his side. Every day the bladder is milked of its bile, which
is then sold as a traditional Chinese medicine.

This hapless beast is just one of thousands of bears in China suffering
because of environmental mismanagement, greed and ignorance. Now, though,
animal welfare groups and medical practitioners have joined forces to free
these "farmed bears" by promoting herbal and synthetic alternatives to
natural bear bile.

Ironically, China's Ministry of Forestry once praised bear farming as
one of the country's conservation success stories -- because it met the
demand for bile without hunting bears to extinction. In 1993, the peak of
China's better-caged-than-extinct policy, about 10,000 of the animals were
kept in farms across the country. The ministry planned to capture another
30,000 by 2000. But under pressure from the International Fund for Animal
Welfare (IFAW), China rethought its policy and stopped issuing bear-farm
licenses. It closed down some of the worst offenders, outlawed capturing
wild bears and forced farmers to use half of their stock for breeding.
Many bears have now been resettled in sanctuaries. Even so, 7,632 still
live in wretched conditions on 481 farms across the country. In South
Korea there are 1,300 caged bears.

Bear farming hasn't slowed the Asiatic black bear's decline. Poaching
continues in China and elsewhere. "Farming has created two levels in the
bear-bile market," says Jill Robinson, China director of the IFAW. "Some
people pay the lower price for farmed bile, while richer consumers still
insist on acquiring the whole gall bladder. So wild bears are still being
shot."

Bear farming can be very profitable. Bears produce about two kilos of
bile a year. It sells for $9,000 a kilo -- a vast sum in rural China. And
the business is a long-term money-earner. The animals can be milked for up
to 13 years. China harvests 7,000 kilos of bile annually, but consumes
only 4,000 kilos. The remainder is sold to Japanese and Korean tour groups
or becomes an exotic, but useless, addition to products such as shampoo,
hemorrhoid cream, cough syrup and tea. Some is illegally smuggled to Hong
Kong's medicine shops. "We need to actively discourage smuggling and put
signs up showing it is illegal," says Judy Mills, from the Wildlife Trade
monitoring program of the World Wildlife Foundation. "People believe
because it's farmed, it's okay."

Unlike tiger bone, which has a mythical reputation as an arthritis
cure, bear bile has proven medicinal value. First listed in Chinese
medical journals in the seventh century, it is widely prescribed in
traditional treatments for ailments such as chronic liver problems, heart
disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. In Korea it is used as a
general tonic.

Fifty years ago, Japanese scientists identified the curative ingredient
-- ursodeoxycholic acid -- and now bear bile is synthesized from cattle,
pig, chicken and goat bile. Practitioners say the synthetic version is as
effective as the real thing. And it is becoming more popular. Already,
nearly 100 tons of synthesized bile are consumed every year in China,
Japan and South Korea.

There are also at least 54 herbal alternatives, including common
rhubarb and a type of gardenia. Dr. Lo Yan-wo, who has been practicing
traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong for 35 years, says there is no
reason to use real bile. "Research shows there are many combinations of
herbs available that can be administered for ailments currently treated
with bear bile. And they are easier and cheaper to use," he says.

So why aren't more people switching? "In the old way of Chinese
thinking, a patient would take real bile every time," says
Anthony Marr,
who works for the Vancouver-based Western Canada Wildlife Committee. "It's
a mystique thing -- superstitious thinking. They believe a powerful animal
should produce a powerful medicine."

In August, the IFAW drew up a battle plan with nearly 6,000 traditional
medicine professionals. Their aim: to spread the word on alternatives. "By
using them, we will raise the international reputation of Chinese medicine
to that of a sophisticated branch of the science," says Dr. Lo. When that
happens, the bile bears will be retired. Whether that day comes in time
for Danny is another matter.

THE BEAR FACTS OF LIFE

The worldwide bear-parts trade has been estimated at $2b.

A single gall bladder from a wild bear can sell for up to $18,000.

Each bear produces 2 kilos of bile a year valued at $9 per gram.

South Korea consumes 40,000 tons of synthesized bile per year.

Surplus bile finishes up in shampoo, where it serves no purpose.

Korea has more than 3,600 clinics where bile salts are taken as a
health stimulant.

In a survey of 50 Korean doctors, all said they use bear bile to treat
cancer, heart disease and cirrhosis.

10% of South Koreans eat bear meat.

South Korea has only 10 bears left in the wild, but 1,300 on farms.

In 1994 there were 16,000 to 19,000 wild bears in China.

U.S. law enforcers estimate 40,000 black bears are killed

illegally every year in North America.

Six of the eight species of black bear are heading for extinction
within 15 years, says the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

* *
*

Being a long-time Bengal
tiger preservationist, Anthony Marr has developed the popular and
ever-evolving 280-image Tigers Forever slideshow which has been
shown to over 150,000 people on three continents. He will also give this
slideshow on this speaking tour, upon request. "Of the
original 8 tiger subspecies, 4 have already gone extinct, and the other 4
will soon follow, unless the entire world rallies to its cause without
delay. The tiger is one of the most revered animals on Earth. If we can't
even save the tiger, what canwe save for our children's
children?" said Anthony.

On Anthony Marr's

Tigers Forever Presentation

from

Michael Statham

Headmaster,

Central Okanagan Academy

Mr. Anthony Marr's presentation to our students
was not only educational and enlightening, but our students also found it
mesmerizing. Mr. Marr is a seasoned and inspiring speaker who kindly
brought his message of the tiger's plight to our students. We booked two
sessions: one for our primary department, grades K-3 and the second for
our students in grades 4-8. He tailored his speech and presentations to
their individual needs, ensuring they were age appropriate.As a scientist, teacher, philosopher, environmentalist, and
photographer, Mr. Marr is able to impart his passion in a powerful manner.
Addressing his audience with fervor, accompanied by a stunning slide show,
Mr. Marr captured our student's attention from the outset. This did not
diminish as the presentation proceeded.I suppose the test of any such endeavor might be measured in the
quantity and quality of the questions asked by the students upon its
completion. Suffice to say that Mr. Marr did not charge for the overtime
he incurred while answering each and every student who had a question. He
did so with patience, wit, humour and more importantly, deep knowledge and
conviction. A Student Council member asked him what specifically they
could do, as a Student Council, to help save the tiger. His response to
her was an earnest one. " Try to really understand what you have seen and
heard today. Then, make others around you aware. In this way, the message
grows."This response was
heeded and our Student Council has now formed a "Green Team" and is
hosting a "Save the Tiger Day" at the school to raise funds. Not only did
his presentation inspire our Student Council, but the older students also
used this experience to write poetry and prose, and our primary students
in K-3 have performed songs, written stories, drawn and painted in sharing
their thoughts and feelings. Was
the experience a positive one? Absolutely. Would I recommend it? Without
hesitation.

1999-05-14

Vancouver Sun

A Passionate Journey to Save India's
Tigers

By Anthony Marr

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 14, 1999 (ENS) - The tigress was
sleeping on her side in the undergrowth deep within Kanha National Park in
Madhya Pradesh, the self-appointed "tiger state" of India. She was
scarcely visible in the dense foliage with her camouflage of brown and
white patches and shadowy black stripes. Within tail-flicking distance
behind her was a half-eaten carcass of a wild boar. The tigress was not
going anywhere, short of angrily bolting in fear of being stepped on by
the elephant on which I was ensconced, which was indeed getting a little
too close.

She tolerated our intrusion for awhile, but when the elephant ripped a
branch off the tree in whose shade she was resting, she finally had
enough, rolled on all fours, gave us a chilling glare and emitted a
hissing snarl that could not be ignored. I snapped the last of a string of
photos and instructed the mahout (elephant driver) to beat a prudent
retreat.

It was January this year, during my third expedition to India's Kanha and
Bandhavgarh tiger reserves as Western Canada Wilderness Committee's (WCWC)
tiger conservation program director. The program, with WCWC working in
partnership with the Indian conservation group Tiger Trust (TT), is funded
by the Canadian International Development Agency at $100,000 per year over
three years. WCWC also generates further tiger conservation funds from its
own 25,000-strong membership, hundreds of donors, educational outreach
slideshows and its annual Save-the-Tiger Walk.

Of the original 100,000 to 150,000 tigers worldwide, only 4,000 to 5,000
remain with only three of the original eight subspecies surviving. The
Bali tiger was extinct as of the 1940s, the Caspian tiger died out in the
1970s and the Javan tiger in the 1980s. Of the remaining subspecies, the
Indian Royal Bengal tiger has the best chance of survival because there
are still about 2,500 remaining compared with 1,000 Indo-Chinese tigers,
300 Siberian tigers, 300 Sumatran tigers and 20 South China tigers.

Wild tigers are dying at the rate of about two each day worldwide due to
the dual cause of direct killing and habitat loss. By the same token,
about one a day dies in India. At these rates, no wild tiger will be left
anywhere in the world within a decade, and the Indian tiger's security is
but that of the last carriage of a crashing train - unless tiger
conservation projects everywhere succeed big time, and very quickly. This
is what I'm betting on, starting with our Save-the-Tiger Campaign.

In 1973 when Project Tiger was launched, with founder Kailash Sankhala as
the first director, tiger trophy-hunting was banned and about 25 tiger
reserves were created. Meanwhile, however, consumer countries like Japan,
Korea and China continue to demand for more tiger bone and penis to supply
their traditional medicine markets, and India's human and cattle
populations continue to sky-rocket - 980 million and 300 million today
respectively.

These are the dual causes of tiger decline - habitat loss and direct
killing. Direct killing refers to poaching for medicinal bone and penis,
but also poisoning by villagers in retaliation for the occasional loss of
cattle as tiger prey. Habitat loss encompasses deforestation and
overgrazing. Currently, the biological contents of a miniscule three
percent of India's land mass are given any degree of protection, but even
these "protected" areas are being eroded by government-condoned mining and
logging, and by local villagers in desperate need of firewood for cooking
and heating. Especially hard to solve is the overpopulation problem
of India's cattle, caused by their being milk-producers, beasts of burden,
and, most importantly, sacred cows.

For each of these problems there are long-term and short-term solutions.
The long-term solution is to re-kindle citizen pride in the tiger as a
national symbol throughout India and especially to motivate the villagers
who live around tiger reserves to become tiger conservationists
themselves.

This is easier said than done. While I was there, India was consumed by
cricket fever. If Indian tiger conservation could captured but one percent
of this enthusiasm, I could retire.

During my two-week stay in urban India, I gave our tiger conservation
slideshow, seen by more than 30,000 students in British Columbia, to 3,000
students of ten Delhi and Jaipur schools. The show did generate the same
degree of enthusiasm, resulting in ten "tiger clubs," which I aim to link
with environmental clubs in schools in Canada.

What does it take to turn villagers into tiger conservationists? Consider
first the villagers. During my eight-week stay in rural India, our WCWC/TT
team, made up of TT field worker Faiyaz Khudsar, Vancouver volunteer Anne
Wittman and myself, held six hour meetings with the leaders of about 120
villages of the 178 in Kanha's Buffer Zone. The meetings included
discussion, a slideshow and a two hour safari in the park - a place most
of them have never seen.

A sub-species of the Swamp deer - the Barasingha (Cervus durauceli
branderi) in Kanha National Park.

Their most common concerns are crop plundering by park ungulates
especially the cheetal deer and the wild boar, loss of cattle to tiger,
insufficient compensation for both, the lack of irrigation, and, last but
not least, the lack of financial benefit from the park.

Underneath these external factors is the general undertone of abject
poverty that limits the villagers' mindset to the here and now at the
expense of tomorrow into which the path of conservation extends. The key
to overcoming these difficulties is actually quite simple: to let long
term conservation benefit them today.

One of the key components of this is to introduce alternative
technologies, such as biogas plants and solar cookers, to replace wood as
fuel. Bearing in mind that village women currently spend their daylight
hours gathering fuelwood from far afield, then walking kilometers back to
their villages or to townships to sell their 50 pound headloads for 15
rupees (55 cents) each, they would welcome alternatives that could allow
them to stay at home and work on financially more rewarding and more
eco-friendly cottage industries.

Our team trekked long distances through thick jungle in Kanha's Buffer
Zone to access remote villages with our demo solar oven on one of our
backs. The demo cooker was designed and made in Canada, but units are
modified in India so they can be constructed out of local materials.
With nine months of solid sunshine a year, India is well suited to this
technology. In a multi-village conference at Bandhavgarh where I was one
of the speakers, we signed up 23 villages who wished to try out our solar
cooker, and further, five villagers signed up to learn to make the cooker
on a commercial basis.

To combat the cattle overpopulation and overgrazing problem, we bought a
special hybrid Haryanna bull that local people had been hankering for -
one whose offspring yield ten times the amount of milk as the usual
breeds. We provided it on a trial basis to a village named Chichrunpur on
the periphery of Kanha tiger reserve - one of the 22 villages translocated
from the Core Area into the Buffer Zone during the creation of the park.
The villagers agreed to stall-feed the new bull and his offspring with
fodder that can be grown on part of the land or obtained commercially,
while gradually retiring the existing low quality stock and neutering all
their existing random-bred bulls. After a generation two, the bull will be
rotated to another village and another installed in his place.
Stall-feeding is important because it frees the land from free-range
overgrazing, protects the higher-quality animals from tiger predation, and
makes cattle dung readily available for biogas (methane) generation -
another alternative fuel technology.
Tiger cub in Kanha National Park.

Regarding the tiger reserves, the general sentiment of the villagers is
that they are little more than rich peoples' playgrounds that provide
little financial benefit to them save a few jobs in the park service, and
worse, produce deer and wild boar that plunder half their crops without
adequate compensation from the park authorities. In view of this, we
recommended reforming the park system so that the reserves can at least
compensate for themselves. Consider this: the world renowned Kruger
National Park of South Africa charges $25 US per visit, Uganda charges
US$180 for one hour of Mountain gorilla viewing. Neighbouring Nepal's
Chitwan National Park grosses US$800,000 a year. Half goes to improve park
services, including anti-poaching, and half goes to a benefit fund managed
by the villages themselves, which helps to preserve the park as their
benefactor.

In contrast, the Indian tiger reserves charge foreign tourists only
US$2.50 for a full day park visit. Indian visitors, mostly wealthy people
from other states, pay just 25 cents. We advocate using Chitwan as a model
by raising the park fee by a factor of ten for both foreign and
out-of-state Indian tourists, while offering local villagers free park
access on a limited basis. Half the increased revenue could go to park
services which could generate more employment, and half could go to the
villages to compensate for crop plundering and
finance cottage industry enterprises such as manfacturing solar cookers.
This gives the villagers a real control over their own destiny.

The park officials, villagers and tourists we have spoken with at both
Kanha and Bandhavgarh by and large wholeheartedly embraced the proposal.
We further pointed out that tigers are in fact their benefactors, since
they keep the wild ungulate populations down by several thousand a year,
and tigers are what tourists from around the world pay the park fee to
see.

While at Bandhavgarh, we were dismayed to discovered that the tigress Sita,
made world famous by the cover article in the December 1997 issue of
National Geographic, had disappeared. Her loss is most likely due to
poaching. More than five other tigers out of a supposed population of only
45 have also vanished, all within the last six months. The entire park was
in a state of subdued uproar, with fingers pointed in various directions.

Worth more dead than alive

Only yesterday I heard from Faiyaz Khudsar that 10 tiger skins and four
tiger skeletons were recently seized in the Kanha District capital
Balaghat. Some officials would deny it, but commercial poaching is alive
and well at both tiger reserves. The proposed park reform should
strengthen their anti-poaching measures.

During our visit, we maintained the medical clinic and free school we
installed at the Tiger Trust Conservation Centre at Kanha in 1997. The
school and clinic services three nearby villages. In the whole of Kanha's
Buffer Zone there are only four medical clinics including our own, all
with similar effective ranges. Of the 178 Buffer Zone villages, no more
than a dozen have access to any medical service.

For the rest, we introduce local medicinal plant cultivation and use by
means of our demonstration medicinal plant garden. We intend to establish
a mobile clinic to benefit more villages in due course.
From their perspective we are a foreign adjunct to the park system, and
they likely would give some credit to the tiger reserves for any benefit
they receive from us.

Finally, we can all learn something from India's experience. Tiger trophy
hunting was not banned until there were fewer than 2,000 tigers left, in
spite of which the Indian tiger may still perish. Currently, most
independent biologists agree that there may be as few as 4,000 Grizzly
bears in British Columbia, regardless of how many more the prohunting BC
government claims there are. If we do not ban the Grizzly bear hunt here
in our own backyard immediately, our Grizzly bears may go the same way as
the highly endangered Indian tiger, or worse, the extinct Bali, Caspian
and Javan tigers.

{Anthony Marr is the tiger campaign director for the Western Canada
Wilderness Committee. His next expedition to India will depart from
Vancouver in October or November. Anyone interested in volunteering can
contact the Wilderness Committee at 604-683-8220.}

Largest of all cats, the Tiger is a magnificent
animal and a fearsome predator but not nearly as formidable as humans who,
with no thought or conscience, are hunting them down for such degrading
fads as tiger penis soup. Once numbering 100,000 the tiger is now listed
as one of the most endangered animals in the world. Fewer than 5,000
remain. In the last 60 years, three of the eight original subspecies have
succumbed to poaching and habitat loss.

Habitat

The tiger's habitat varies from the coniferous
and deciduous filled forests of Russia to the lush tropical rain forests,
marshes and grasslands of India. Watersheds provide the essence of life
for humans and ideal habitat for these beautiful beasts. Protecting the
tiger's habitat insures the life of plants, insects and animals for future
generations. Everything dances. to the rhythm of the forest.

Depending on terrain and food availability, male
tigers require a range of 14-65 square miles, while females may be content
with 7-21 square miles. A tigress centers her territory around her prey,
especially during the nursing period. This practice keeps her near her
young cubs should danger arise. A solitary male's territory often overlaps
the area of several females but never that of another male. Like all cats,
tigers mark their territory with urine and scent gland secretions that are
released during tree scratching.

Nature bestowed a coat of magic on the tiger. Its
orange and black stripes blend so well with the environment that at times
it seem to. just disappear. The black lines break up the shape of its body
as it strolls through the grasslands. The stripes are also used in
identification, as no two tiger's body markings are alike.

Behavior

Tigers are nocturnal. They use their whiskers
(pointing forward while stalking) as sensors and their keen eyesight and
highly developed sense of smell to guide them on their way. A white spot
appears on the back of each cupped ear. Scientists assume the markings are
meant to portray eyes to scare off any predator brave enough to attack, or
perhaps offer a beacon for young cubs to follow on their nightly jaunts.

Although the tiger stalks the land, muscles
rippling in a body of pure controlled power, it is not always successful
as a hunter. In fact, it manages to bring down its quarry only about 5-10%
of the time and often goes for several days to a week without making a
kill. Tigers ambush their prey near trails or watering holes, attacking
from the rear. A bite to the neck severing the spinal cord of small
animals or suffocating larger prey by going for the throat makes for a
clean kill. Unlike the cheetah they rarely chase their intended victim
more than the 10-25 yards from their cover area although they will on
occasion run as far as 100 yards before giving up the chase. After the
kill the carcass is dragged off to a safe place for consumption where as
much as, 40 lbs. may be eaten at one session.

Reproduction

Adult tigers are solitary, coming together only
to mate. The chance of tigers meeting during the mating season is very
slight due to their declining numbers and habitat fragmentation.
Replenishing stock is a long slow progress as female tigers do not breed
for the first three to four years, and because litters average only 2 - 3
cubs, often with at least one dying at birth. Weighing only 2-3 lbs., the
cubs are born blind and remain helpless until they are 6-8 weeks old when
their eyes open on the world for the first time.

Male tigers will often kill cubs in order to
bring the female into estrus. Dominant males killed seven of the known 22
cubs born in the Kanha Tiger Reserve this year.

The young cubs depend on their mother for food
for the first 18 months, and then continue as a family unit for two years
before dispersing to establish their own territories. Mature tigers are
known to travel as far as 20 miles a day seeking prey, water and shelter.
A normal life span is 10 years in the wild, "although the famous tigress
Sita died at 17, when she was presumed poached," reports Chinese-Canadian
tiger conservationist Anthony Marrwho was doing work at Bandhavgarh
National Park in India where Sita lived when she died.

"Unlike lions, whose cubs feed last, a tigress
lets her cubs eat first," adds Marr, a self-professed admirer of Sita, who
was still with cub when she succumbed.

The way of the tiger is indeed endangered

There are only five subspecies of tigers left in
the world today:

Siberian - Bengal - Indo-Chinese - Sumatran - and
- South China.

The Siberian tiger is the largest of the big
cats. Research indicates that there are only 200 - 400 left in the wild.
The adult male weighs up to 800 pounds and measures 10 feet in length
while the smaller female tips the scales around 500 pounds. Their size and
luxurious coats allow them to exist in a climate where the temperature is
known to dip to -45 degrees F. These cats live in the remote wilderness
forests of Korea, China and the Russia Far East. They prey on deer, elk,
wild boar and smaller mammals.

While some species may maintain territories of 10
to 30 sq. miles, their limited availability of prey requires the Siberian
tiger to claim areas as large as 120 sq. miles. The black market trade of
tiger parts in Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan increased with the opening of
the Russian, Chinese and North Korean borders. In Russia, increased
poaching and logging practices are also having a devastating effect on the
Siberian tiger's population.

The Bengal tiger, also known as the Indian or
Royal Bengal tiger is a smaller cat [male 419-569 pounds, female 221-353
pounds]. There are approximately 2,500 animals accounted for in the wild
making this the cat with the highest survival rate.

The Indian subcontinent has declared only 3% of
the area as protected. In South-East Asia the tiger is still hunted,
captured, and poisoned to such an extent that the numbers are dwindling at
an alarming rate.

The exact numbers of poached tigers is unknown,
however an estimated 300-500 tigers were killed yearly between 1989 and
1993. Some say that one tiger a day is still being killed in India. When
government bureaucracy held up payment for tiger- killed cattle, provoked
villagers encouraged by left-wing extremists took matters into their own
hands killing more than 28 animals.

Most of us associate the Bengal cat with the Las
Vegas black and white stage performers. All of the white Bengal tigers
currently in captivity in the United States were bred and inbred from one
white male captured in India in 1951. These tigers are rarely seen in the
wild and are not albinos.

Approximately 200 to 300 Sumatran tigers are left
in the wild and another 235 in captive breeding programs. Regarded as the
smallest living tigers, the males vary from seven to eight feet in length
and weigh between 220-310 pounds. They prey on cattle, deer and pigs in
their home range on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

As of this writing, the South China tiger may be
extinct. Forty years ago, the animals numbering 4000-5000 were declared
pests by the Chinese government. This dictate brought about a mass
slaughter of the sub-species. A mere handful of survivors were spotted
during a 1987 field survey, these tigers were seen in the Guangdong
Mountains bordering Hunan and Jiang Xi provinces. A recent unconfirmed
report from the Ministry of Forestry suggests the wild population numbers
less than 20.These statistics make the South China tiger the most rare of
the five remaining tiger sub-species and the one closest to extinction.

Poaching

Poaching is a major factor in the tiger's
decline. A tiger skin sells for as much as $20,000, a tiger penis $3,000
U.S.

"A dead tiger is worth much more than a live
tiger in economic terms," Marr points out. "A dead tiger is worth upwards
of $80,000 in salable parts on the retail market in Japan or Korea."
Poaching for tiger parts is done for profit and to satisfy the lucrative
Asian medicinal market.

India's Wildlife Protection Society estimates
that at least 440 tiger carcasses used in Chinese medicine were exported
over the last six years. Wildlife lawyers prosecuted 120 poachers in India
last year. The top fines were $150, and although the maximum penalty is up
to six years. To date no one has served any jail time for poaching tigers.
Economics are forcing poor locals using ancient rifles to hunt down this
vulnerable species for a ration of grain to feed their families.

Although the selling or trading of any products
made from endangered species is illegal, it continues to be a 1.7
billion-dollar-a-year business. After illicit drugs, trafficking in
wildlife parts estimated at $6 billion per annum globally is the second
largest black market trade in the U.S. Marr investigated 37 Chinese
pharmacies in New York City in August 1999. Nine of them openly displayed
packaged tiger-bone medicines for sale, in spite of the existing law."

As the Chinese people become more affluent and
their population increases, the demand for tiger parts continues to rise.
Thousand-year old traditions die slowly. Many Asians still believe that
tiger bone can cure convulsions, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Tiger parts
are also used for good luck charms [eyes], "laziness" and pimples [brain],
toothache [whiskers], skin diseases [tail], paralysis [bones] and virility
[penis]. Ground tiger bones sell for $725 lb. [US] on the Korean market.

A sting operation by TRAFFIC India confiscated
882 lbs. of tiger bones, and 8 tiger skins accounting for 28-40 animals.
The infiltrators were told given thirty days, they could deliver 2,200
lbs. of bones for $40.86 per pound.

Habitat Degradation

As with any endangered species, the tiger faces
the dual threat of direct killing and indirect killing, the latter being
destruction of the tiger's habitat. Marr laments. "In India, forests are
being cut down by the rural millions for firewood and the 300 million
sacred cows are overgrazing the habitat of deer - the tiger's main prey.
As we speak, there are 500 forest fires raging out of control in Sumatra,
most of which being deliberately set by ranchers and industries, under the
averted eyes of the Indonesian government."

Fragmentation of forests also leads to the
tiger's ability to traverse its natural home range.

Tracking Tigers

Humans have been able to track animals for
centuries through their footprints or in the case of tigers - pugmarks.
Nevertheless, nowhere on earth has this means of identification been
perfected more than in India and Africa. There, professional trackers can
determine the sex; age, species and approximate size of the beast from paw
prints. Some of the highly skilled trackers can even determine if the
animal is pregnant or has recently eaten a meal.

Cats walk in their own footprints leaving only
the hind paw mark open to interpretation. However, if the animal is
cantering or galloping, the prints of all paws are visible which can
determine the animal's speed and confirm an individual's identity,
especially in the case of injury or deformities.

During the tiger count, pugmarks are either
traced on paper or plaster of Paris casts are prepared. The time and
location of each print is then recorded. The pugmark's length, breadth and
stride length are also recorded. These pugmark measurements and shapes
determine the sex of the tiger. The collected data is then recorded
logging individual tigers, their range, and territorial patterns as the
current count.

Unfortunately, some park directors tend to
deliberately overestimate the tiger population in their charge, for
obvious corrupt reasons.

Conservation - Laws

Fines for possession or sale of products
containing tiger parts are minimal. $5,000 for persons caught with the
product, or business owners $10,000 and/or six months in jail. Compare
that to the $100,000 individual and $200,000 and/or one year in jail for
possession of seal penises also used in traditional Chinese medicine and
it's obvious saving tigers is not very high on any government's list.

India was once a leader in tiger conservation. In
1972, they set aside land to be used as tiger reserves and the labor to
patrol them. At the same time, poaching intensified, and still continues
as the poverty, education, fuel technology and alternative income issues
of the villagers remain unsolved.

In 1975 the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora {CITES} was founded with a
membership from 145 countries to eliminate illegal trade of animal parts
and products. In 1994 the U.S. government imposed trade sanctions on
Taiwan for their illegal trade in tiger part yet the U.S. remains the
largest market for wildlife products. With only 93 wildlife inspectors at
30 ports of entry, the underground trade continues to flourish. Ever
increasing cutbacks in funding and labor have thwarted conservation
efforts. Until conservation management is properly funded and focuses on
the education of Asian communities, the poverty stricken, and land-use
planning, the tiger population will continue to decline. Marr says,
"putting an end to illegal trade in wildlife must begin in each country's
backyard. All that is needed - to clean up New York City's tiger parts
trade, for example - are two or three dedicated people if they concentrate
on doing it."

Regrettably, there are still some Asian
restaurants, offering patrons a complete meal of endangered species
starting with Tiger penis soup, billed at $400 per bowl. Conservationists
say tigers could be extinct in the wild by 2010 (ironically the next Year
of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar) if steps to save them are not
intensified. Unfortunately, as long as there is a market, tigers will be
slaughtered to fill it.

* *
*

2003-03-28

Destruction of marine
mammal and fish population
by Rafe Mair •Thursday May
29, 2003 at 10:13 AM

Editorial by Rafe Mair on CKNW, March 28, 2003.
"Assuming the 'environmental movement' had its start around 1962, when
Rachel Carson published her blockbuster "Silent Spring" this means that
in 60 years – after we knew better – we have all but wiped out our
oceans." Reproduced with permission from
http://www.rafeonline.com/.

Rafe Mair Online - March 28, 2003

It’s time we came to our senses, folks. By a
recent Canadian study, 90% of the world’s predatory fishes have been wiped
out and for convenience that term includes porpoises, dolphins, whales,
seals, sea lions and so forth as well. It also includes salmon and any
other fish prey on other sea creatures other than plankton and vegetation.
Then we heard yesterday from author Richard Ellis, who has studied the
oceans for 35 years, confirmation of that fact in his book The Empty
Ocean. What is really terrifying is that nearly all countries bordering on
oceans have laws favouring conservation and government departments to do
the enforcing. Assuming the “environmental movement” had its start around
1962, when Rachel Carson published her blockbuster "Silent Spring" this
means that in 60 years – after we knew better – we have all but wiped out
our oceans. If one takes the starting point at 1948 when Thor Heyerdahl
wrote Kon Tiki it means we took a bit longer but we knew more earlier.

It can be argued that there have been other
causes – global warming being one but even that may be attributed to man.
The terrible fact comes back to hit us in the face – we have destroyed 90%
of our sea going predatory animals … and we knew better.

One of the reasons this has happened is that it’s
always been someone else’s fault – Japan and Norway after whales, Japan
and Korea with drift nets, Russian trawlers and on and on it goes.
Whatever we ourselves do, we convince ourselves, is peanuts compared to
the major sinners.

But there are two major problems. There is the
huge sinner, the whalers, the drift netters and the huge trawlers … but
there are also, all over the world, deaths of a thousand cuts. Little
impacts here, little degradations there which all add up.

As I remarked to Mr Ellis in my interview
yesterday, if we see a clear cut we know there was once a forest there and
we are reminded of that fact for years to come. When we look out at the
ocean we don’t see any degradation so, out of sight, out of mind.

The ocean’s ecology is very complicated. There is
a huge and very complex interdependence. Left to her own devices, nature
handles its problems very well. When the victims decrease the predators
starve giving the victims the opportunity to revive their numbers. But it
is never just one on one. Very often someone’s predator is another one’s
victim and sometimes the chain is a long and complicated one.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for the
human fisherman – man has been fishing since prehistoric times and humans
are part of the food chain, though at the very top. What it does mean is
that we have to start assessing our sloppy and often plain greedy actions
and do something about it.

Probably the biggest problems are two in number –
we don’t have good science to guide us and the majority don’t want any
science that curtails our activities.

Let’s look first at the seals, both on the East
Coast and the West Coast. Superficially it seems obvious – there is the
seal and there was the fish. Kill the seals and the fish will come back.
But Anthony Marr,
Paul Watson and much serious science will tell you that the seal, who is a
predator, is two other things as well. It is the victim of Orcas and is
also the friend of the fish it preys on. How can that be?

The seal doesn’t only eat salmon on the west
coast or cod on the east coast … it also preys upon the enemies of the
salmon and cod respectively. It’s that complex food chain again. This
means that it’s not enough to know how many seals there are and how many
salmon because they are but a couple of links in the chain that includes
Whales at one end and plankton on the other with all sorts of disparate
elements in between – such as eagles, bears, wharf perch, shiners,
sticklebacks and on it goes. This is why much of the science available is
unhelpful. Much of it – by industry especially but by governments as well
– is self serving and is initiated not to seek out unknown answers so much
as to gratify a desire to exploit.

You know the story of the Orange Roughy, a
delicacy found off the shores of Australia and New Zealand. It was fished
hard on the assumption that they were quickly replaced. The most
elementary of studies would have shown what we now know, namely that the
fish lives about 25 years and doesn’t spawn until many years after birth.
Simply by fishing on a wrong-headed assumption, prompted no doubt by
greed, a species has almost been eliminated.

This is what is so distressing about the Atlantic
Salmon fish farm industry in British Columbia – it has been allowed to
exist and now expand without the basic science being done. Actually, we
know it’s worse than that because ongoing science in Norway, Scotland and
Ireland science has shown caged salmon to be an ecological disaster. Our
own science, Dr John Volpy and Alexandra Morton, as verified by several
marine biologists, shows us that this interference with our native fishery
has been disastrous and that matters will get much worse.

The fish farm debate is a curious one for the
fish farmers say that they will be the salvation of the wild fish because
demand for fish will be met by farmed rather than wild fish. This isn’t
true for a lot of reasons. At the very best they might replace, as food,
those wild salmon they destroy but it must also be remembered that they
consume, over their life, many times their weight in other fish … because
those other fish come form foreign lands we tend to discount them.

In the marvelous old comic strip of years ago
Pogo Possum observed “we have met the enemy and he is us”. That is
tragically so. And at the risk of being repetitive I must observe that
when we start giving Orders of Canada and BC to the likes of Paul Watson
while accepting him as an honoured member of our society and when we start
jailing the pillars in our communities, the ones who get the Orders of
Canada and other honours, who rape and pillage our oceans, then and then
only will we start the belated path back.

It may already be too late but we must assume
that it isn’t and fight the good fight with all we have in us … for the
rapists and pillagers depend upon us to protest lightly, if at all, then
leave them to do as they wish to the heritage God left us … a heritage we
are supposed to be passing on, intact, to our children and grandchildren.

The
world's appetite for bear bile and bear parts extends to the Bay Area
and has even led to the hunting and killing of California's wild bears,
state officials and animal rights activists say.

Lt.
Kathy Ponting, field supervisor for the California Department of Fish
and Game's undercover Special Operations unit, says game wardens
regularly find black bear carcasses in the wild with only their gall
bladders and paws cut away.

When
WildAid, an animal rights group based in San Francisco, sent an
undercover investigator into Chinatown last year, two shopkeepers
readily offered up vials in velvet-lined boxes with a picture of a bear
on the lid, claiming the powdered bear bile was from farms in China,
said Executive Director Peter Knights.

One
reason wild bear parts are prized is that some adherents of traditional
Chinese medicine believe that by eating animal parts, they will take on
the characteristics of the animal. Yet because California law bans the
sale or purchase of bear parts -- with penalties ranging up to a $30,000
fine and three years in state prison -- the trade is clandestine and it
is impossible to gauge the full extent of the problem.

But in
2001, when the World Society for the Protection of Animals conducted a
probe of traditional Chinese medicine shops in Canada and four U.S.
cities -- Chicago, New York, Washington and San Francisco -- it found
that 91 percent of the shops surveyed sold some form of bear part,
including farmed bile powder, bile medicines and whole gall bladders.

In San
Francisco, bile crystal sold for $50 a bottle, the survey found, and
whole gall bladders, which the merchants claimed to be from wild bears
in China, sold for $129.

The
Humane Society of the United States says smugglers have been caught with
bears' gall bladders dipped in chocolate, in an attempt to disguise them
as chocolate-covered figs, and packed in coffee to conceal the smell.

Knights
said demand for the once-rare product remains high, which has led to
more bears being killed in the wild. "People don't want to be like a
bear in a cage, they want to be like a wild bear," Knights said.

Some
users of Chinese medicines argue that Westerners have no right to
criticize their centuries-old cultural traditions. But
Anthony Marr, a
Chinese Canadian animal welfare advocate, argues that "all traditions,
sooner or later, have to give way to new advances, and for this
practice, its time has come."

Another
reason that wild bear parts are in demand is that consumers grew wary of
prepackaged bear products after the state's Department of Fish and Game
revealed that some "bear" products netted in sting operations were
really from pigs and cows. Poachers sometimes go to great lengths to
prove their bear parts are real, even videotaping the kills in some
cases, Knights said.

In the
mid-1990s, the Department of Fish and Game aggressively pursued bear
poachers and held meetings with experts on the trade in bear parts. A
yearlong sting operation in Kern and Tulare counties dubbed Ursus III
netted 11 suspects in 2003.

Sting
operations have helped tamp down the trade in certain areas, Ponting
said, but she added: "We would be naive to feel we have it in check.''

State
efforts were curtailed under Gov. Gray Davus when the Special Operations
unit was cut from 10 wardens to six. The hiring freeze was lifted in
July 2004.

"I wish
we had the resources to do more," she said. "We're just spread so thin.
We've got a lot of species to protect."

Tracing
poachers is complicated by the fact that there is no uniform federal law
banning the trade in bear parts, so poachers can transport their
contraband from California to one of the eight states where the parts
can be bought and sold legally. A number of bills have been introduced
to put a federal ban in place, including bills by Rep. Elton Gallegly,
R-Thousand Oaks (Ventura County), and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., but
so far they have stalled in Congress.

Ponting
said she believes the major market for poached black bear parts is in
California, with its large Asian population: "The supply and the demand
are right here."

Miles
Young, a former supervisor for undercover Fish and Game operations,
suspects that many California bear parts are making their way to Asia.
"Galls are worth a lot more going to Asia," said Young, who retired from
the department in December 2003.

The
trade can be lucrative, he said, especially for international smugglers.
During one sting operation, he sent an Asian woman to buy gall bladders
from poachers in Northern California. She was able to buy 35 in one day,
paying $35 to $40 for them, he said. Agents then resold them to a Bay
Area merchant for $300 to $400.

"You
can add another zero to that to get the price in Korea," Young said.

Knights, from WildAid, says efforts to crack down on poachers are
worthwhile.

"If you
bust somebody and publicize it, the aftershocks can last for years."

But his
organization is taking another tack, attempting to make the trade in
animal parts unfashionable and to persuade consumers to use
alternatives, like synthetic bile and herbal remedies.

The
group has filmed television spots featuring Asian and international
celebrities such as martial arts actor Jackie Chan, director Ang Lee and
actress Michelle Yeoh. The spots have been broadcast to an audience of
more than a million people a week, mainly in Asia.

Well, it did not
take long. It’s getting to the point that being a conservationist
automatically makes a person a racist. Now it appears it is racist to
defend sharks. What is even more amazing is that some people consider it a
form of “Western cultural imperialism” to criticize Disneyland in Hong
Kong.

I’ve been called a racist for defending whales, seals,
fish, elephants, and trees, and for speaking out about human
over-population. So, I guess it is not surprising to now be called a
racist for defending sharks.

Let me see, for defending whales, we are anti-Japanese,
anti-Norwegian, anti-Icelandic, and anti-Native American. For defending
seals, we are anti-Canadian, anti-Norwegian, anti-Russian, and
anti-Namibian. For defending trees, we are anti-Hispanic and anti Native
American, oh yes, and anti-working class. It appears that loggers who make
four times the average income of an environmental activist are
working-class and the lower-paid activists are viewed as wealthy. You see,
when you work without pay because you feel that the entire future of the
planet is at stake, this is viewed as a luxury. In other words,
environmental activists have the luxury of sleeping in trees and not
owning a home, a car, or recreational vehicles.

Anyways, back to being a racist for saving sharks.

I was sent a response from a man named Hsing Lee who
believes that the entire campaign to stop people from eating shark fin
soup is motivated by anti-Chinese passions.

I guess that’s why we are opposing Disneyland. Lee
apparently believes that it is part of the traditional Chinese culture for
Chinese couples to have Disney character fantasy weddings where
traditional shark fin soup is served.

Never mind that Disneyland has now become a Mousewich
for sharks and that a hundred million of them are being cruelly
slaughtered to provide trinkets, and expensive, tasteless, status symbol
bowls of soup. A hundred million sentient creatures a year massacred for
non-nutritive purposes, slaughtered for vanity, and justified by culture.

It’s a holocaust for sharks including those killed for
the Mouse-shirted eco-fascists at Disneyland Hong Kong, but Lee is blind
to the plight of the sharks, and most likely, he is as apathetic about the
health of the oceans as well.

This is his
protest:

You have some Western
prejudice in play here on your part.

The medicinal properties of sharks fin soup are well
known, and it's been used as food and medicine for thousands of years.
It's as traditional a dish as steak and potatoes. Would you prefer that
we Chinese give up our culture and identity and conform to Western diet,
medicine, and language? It's not Chinese medicine that brought the
world Heroin or Vicodin or Oxycontin or Vioxxx, all of which are
infinitely worse for people than a shark's fin. And I can testify first
hand to the medicinal qualities of shark's fin soup. It really does make
you stronger, more virile, and gives you a more adaptable immune
system. You fight off sickness faster when you drink it. And unlike
Westerners and their whale killing for ambergris, we Chinese actually
put the rest of the shark on people's dinner tables. We even use the
highly elastic bone and tendon. There is no wastage unless the shark is
one of a handful of breeds that can be toxic.

The tone of
this entire article [referring to the article in the Herald Tribune and
the New York Times] is ignorant, racist, and just more China and Chinese
bashing by a bunch of fucking Nazi crackers who think only Western ways
are good or proper and everyone else is immoral.

Hsing Lee makes quite a few
factual errors in his protest. It was China that actually introduced opium
to the West and heroin is an extract of opium. There are no Western
whalers hunting whales for Ambergris which comes only from the sperm whale
and the only nation hunting sperm whales is Japan. There is no scientific
validity to the claims that shark fin is a health benefit. It is not true
that the Chinese use all parts of the shark. Ninety percent of shark fins
come from sharks where the body has been wastefully discarded. Shark fin
is not as traditional a dish in China as steak and potatoes is for
Westerners for the simple reason that the cost of between $100 and $400
per bowl makes it a restricted dish available only to the wealthy.

I sent the
following reply to Hsing Lee:

To Hsing Lee,

I don't fall
for the racist guilt crap.

The fact is
that sharks are being seriously diminished and a major reason for it is
the Asian demand for shark fin soup. My opposition to shark finning has
nothing to do with any prejudice towards Chinese culture. On the
contrary, my one child is half Chinese and I have quite a few Chinese
in-laws, all of whom are opposed to shark fin soup, by the way.

Anthony Marris a
Vancouver Chinese activist, originally from China and a dedicated
activist against shark finning.

There is not a shred of scientific evidence to
demonstrate any medicinal benefits of shark fins or shark cartilage. I
have interviewed reputable Chinese medical practioneers who have told me
that there is no validity to these claims.

And even if there were valid claims, the destruction of the world's
sharks is not worth the benefits.

No one is asking the Chinese to give up their culture. We are asking
people to be ecologically responsible and sensitive to the fact that
shark species have been diminished in all species from 60% up to 95%.
Basking sharks, tiger sharks, white sharks, and whale sharks have been
especially hit.

Last year, I found 100 plus silky sharks entangled and dead in a net
that was caught on the rocks a hundred feet down, off the World Heritage
Site of Malpelo Island, Colombia. What right do the Hong Kong Shark Fin
merchants have to rob Colombia of its natural treasures?

Every year, I haul hundreds of miles of illegally-set
long lines from the oceans and intercept poachers with cargos of shark
fins.

What right does Hong Kong have to plunder the world's oceans for the
benefit of so-called Chinese culture? The answer is they have no right
at all.

Have we descended so low that we are now using culture to defend the
extermination of species? Has it come to this that defenders of
endangered species and protectors of oceanic ecosystems are to be called
racist for practicing, promoting, and enforcing conservation?

Your accusation that Westerners are killing whales for Ambergris is way
out of date. Whales have not been killed for Ambergris for over a
century, and the only commercial whale killers in the world today are
the Japanese, the Norwegians, and the Icelanders, and we oppose them all
regardless of their race or culture.

You have the audacity to say there is no wastage when it is a fact that
only 4% of a shark's body is utilized by the shark fin industry and the
rest is thrown away.

Just last week, a San Diego court found a Hong Kong
company guilty of possessing nearly 70,000 pounds of shark fins without
utilizing the remaining 96% of the bodies. This represents between
18,000 and 22,000 sharks.

It is a fact that over 100 million sharks are being slaughtered each
year and a great majority of this slaughter is to provide shark fins for
tasteless, non-nutritive, expensive, superstitious soup meant to impress
family and friends as a status symbol.

It is your remarks which are ignorant and racist. The
fact is that there are many Chinese who are speaking out against shark
finning. We have Chinese celebrities like Michele Yeoh and Jackie Chan
who have spoken out against it. We have Chinese volunteers working on
stopping the consumption of shark fins. You are using race to cover up
your support for a product which is causing incredible ecological damage
to oceanic eco-systems. You are hiding behind race because you do not
have the facts to back up your ridiculous belief that shark fin soup is
a benefit to health.

In doing so, you also expose your own racism by
labeling any person who is opposed to the massive slaughter of sharks as
a Nazi. Talk about unoriginal name calling.

I have always found it despicable for people to use
their race, their sex, or their culture to cover up crimes. The
slaughter of sharks is a crime against nature and it is a crime under
international and national laws.

I find the Chinese to be no better or no worse than every other mis-guided,
anthropocentric, nature-abusing hominids anywhere. We are all on the
same spaceship, Hsing.

As far as I am concerned, there is only one race and
that is the human race, and ecologically speaking the entire race is
predominantly ignorant, destructive, and suicidal.

The campaign
against shark finning has nothing to do with race and culture and
everything to do with the conservation of important species that fulfill
valuable niches within oceanic ecological systems.

Captain Paul Watson

* * *

2005-12-28

When he was asked why he was going on the road again, Anthony Marr
replied: "There is an over abundance of compassion and a dire shortage
of action, while animals scream and the Earth burns. I aim to
unleash the dammed-up compassion into passionate and effective action
across the land."

Compassion Into Action - for budding and veteran activists alike. One of
the plenary sessions in the AR2005 conference (www.FARMUSA.org) was
titled "Compassion Into Action". Anthony Marr was one of the speakers.
Afterwards, he received considerable encouragement to expand his 15
minute speech into a full-length presentation, complete with workshop,
plus write a book on the subject. He has done both.